Present methods of surface mounting pins, tabs or other terminals to substrates are unsatisfactory because they are merely slight modifications to standard present-day headers. In the case of pins, these modifications include alternate bending of pins, in a gull-wing shape or "J" leg, or resort to using plug holes (see FIG. 1).
These solutions are not desirable because they consume too much surface area, are difficult to inspect, require holes, and need expensive pick and place machines together with headers loaded in supply tubes. Another alternative is a lead frame assembly with mounting clip. This solution suffers from several problems, including the severe limitation that the pins can only be located next to the edge of the substrate.
Clearly, the need for a quick and simple system for terminal attachment exists.